Music and sports have developed quite a relationship over the years.

“Everybody has some sort of music that is motivational in some way,” says David Stuart, associate music professor. “People who are really into tunes and use them that way, it’s sort of like drugs; you can take your uppers to get you pumped up or keep you awake and your downers to relax when you need to.”

You hear music at nearly every sporting event, TV channels like ESPN often incorporate music into sports and MTV intertwines sports with music.

Video games have even joined the game and incorporated star-studded soundtracks into sports games ranging from basketball to skateboarding.

Music has become so important to the athlete, that practically every time you see an athlete exit a bus or entering a venue, they’ve got the headphones on, pumping their ears full of energy and motivation.

Senior womens basketball player Angie Welle says when she first came to Iowa State, the common song in the locker room before games was, “not to be too clich‚,” the theme from “Rocky.”

“I got a little burnt out of that,” Welle says. “So we switched it up.”

That switch up has led to such artists as Shakira.

“I love Shakira,” Welle says. “It was this song in Spanish, but I loved it. Even though I couldn’t understand one word she was saying it was great.”

Athletes use music for a variety of things from getting pumped up to trying to calm down and even attempting not to think at all.

“Sometimes I just like to put on a CD when I am trying to lose weight,” says Aaron Holker, junior in pre-advertising and NCAA 141 pound champion. “I just think about nothing particular and the music takes my mind away from how much it sucks to be running.”

In many cases athletes need to change their states of mind prior to an event to focus more squarely on the task at hand. One of the way wrestlers do this is by choosing their entrance music as they move from the locker room to the mat.

“I chose `Crazy Train’ by Ozzy Osborne,” says Zach Roberson, junior in industrial engineering and 135 pound wrestler. “I try to pick something that pumps me up and gets me to go out there and try to win.”

Both Holker and Roberson say they often find themselves using music to tune out their surroundings, whether it be coach screaming at them in practice or trying to tune into a match. Holker says that before matches he sings church songs in his head to try to clear his mind of outside distractions.

Welle has enjoyed the technology of burning CDs, which has kept her favorites very personal.

“My favorite CDs of all-time would be some of my burned ones,” Welle says. “They have Shakira, Enrique Iglesias and stuff like that.”

As you will see, the type of music athletes use varies from sport to sport. Some are dominated by hip-hop, while others prefer country. Some even like – Poison?

“I started listening to 94.9 (KGG0) stuff – construction music I call it,” Holker says. “That’s what I have been working out too, Whitesnake and Poison. They have some good songs.”